Billings man pleads guilty to raping 2-year-old girl

BILLINGS – A 27-year-old Billings man has pleaded guilty to raping a 2-year-old girl, causing severe internal injuries that required surgery to repair.

The Billings Gazette reported Daniel Joseph Degele also pleaded guilty Wednesday to sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl in June 2013.

The plea agreement calls for Degele to be sentenced to 100 years in prison with 60 suspended. He would have to serve 25 years before being eligible for parole.

However, if doctors at the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs find he was suffering from a mental disease or defect that made him unable to control his behavior, he will be sentenced to the custody of the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

Court records say the girl was raped in November 2014 when Degele was left alone with her for about five minutes.